tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2243026616620216878.post6500139760540233818..comments2013-09-17T08:53:40.990-04:00Comments on UpFront with NGS: Books and Other Fetish ObjectsGayathri Kherhttps://plus.google.com/114553885870289189352noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2243026616620216878.post-19498041302668888942011-07-26T14:48:03.521-04:002011-07-26T14:48:03.521-04:00But the original artifact still has its own story ...But the original artifact still has its own story to tell. Here is a response from the new director of the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington: <br />To the Editor:<br /><br />In “Books and Other Fetish Objects” (Sunday Review, July 17), James Gleick points out that the digitization of rare books and other materials has made these objects vastly more accessible; even if you haven’t paid $21 million for your own Magna Carta, you can download it to your computer screen for virtually nothing.<br /><br />Mr. Gleick is right to say that the digitization of precious materials gives them another life on the Web, and that research libraries can and should make these materials available to the broadest possible audience. But if we are interested in what an early document like Magna Carta or a Shakespeare First Folio really means, it is vital to place it among other like objects to know how it was created, used and valued.<br /><br />If the Folger Shakespeare Library were to digitize all 82 copies of the First Folio that we possess — each of them unique — we would not have made the book fully accessible. Access is a matter of understanding, and that means, in this case, knowing how such a treasured volume was physically distinguished from its peers.<br /><br />It is one thing to look at a digital photograph taken at the top of Mount Everest and feel the thrill of “being there.” It is quite another to pore over the broad pages of Shakespeare’s First Folio (1623) and ask what such a luxurious book meant to those who bought and read it.<br /><br />MICHAEL WITMORE<br />Director, Folger Shakespeare Library<br />Washington, July 20, 2011Toby Webbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02042547227796944665noreply@blogger.com